Plaid Is So Yesterday

By Tom Ferrick Jr.

Dec. 14, 2015

Philadelphia — Hugh Scott, the Pennsylvania Republican who served as Senate minority leader during the Watergate era, was known for his ever-present pipe and his determination to evade taking a position until he was good and ready.

The story goes that once, when asked what his favorite color was, Mr. Scott replied, “Plaid.”

It’s a joke, but there is truth to it because Mr. Scott represented a plaid state, not as liberal as Massachusetts, not as conservative as Indiana.

In Mr. Scott’s day, Pennsylvania trended Republican. Today, Pennsylvania trends Democratic. Seen from 30,000 feet, it looks blue. The last Republican presidential candidate to win here was George H. W. Bush in 1988. This is mostly because of the populous southeastern part of the state, where 42 percent of all Pennsylvania voters live, which has become increasingly Democratic, especially in the Philadelphia suburbs.

Closer to the ground, though, the plaid is plain to see — where the urban and suburban blue is mixed with a vivid red in the counties outside the big cities. Voters in these more rural areas have been sending increasingly conservative Republicans to the Legislature. The state’s centrist political culture is no more. The sharp partisan divisions so evident in Congress have trickled down to Pennsylvania.

The new Democratic governor, Tom Wolf, learned that recently when he arrived in Harrisburg with an ambitious plan to fund education by raising some taxes (the personal and sales tax) and lowering others (the corporate net income tax and local property taxes).

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Tom Wolf, governor of Pennsylvania, right, delivered his budget address on March 3, 2015. Mike Turzai, the speaker of state's House of Representatives, is at left.CreditMatt Rourke/Associated Press

Mr. Wolf, a millionaire businessman from York County, could be forgiven if he believed he had a mandate for change. In November 2014, he defeated the unpopular incumbent, Tom Corbett, by a 10-point margin.

Mr. Corbett was a resolute anti-taxer who took the knife to state funding for education and social welfare programs. He discovered an interesting political fact: People tend not to list education as one of their top items of concern — unless they feel it is imperiled. It was the No. 1 issue in the campaign. Mr. Corbett became a one-term governor.

Mr. Wolf is an expert on political theory. He has a Ph.D. from M.I.T. in political science. After recent experience, he may be eligible for an equivalency degree in practical politics.

“This is not about politics or ideology,” Mr. Wolf said in his budget address in early March, when he proposed his roughly $30 billion state budget.

Boy, was he wrong.

Halloween has passed; Thanksgiving has come and gone, Christmas is on its way and Pennsylvania still does not have a state budget, one of two states in the nation in this predicament (Illinois is the other). The new fiscal year began way back on July 1.

School districts that rely heavily on state aid have taken to borrowing money to keep operating. Some social welfare agencies that are state contractors have furloughed employees. Counties have had to pick up the cost of what are usually state-subsidized social welfare and health services. The situation gets more dire every month.

While Pennsylvania trends Democratic in national elections, gerrymandering — sorry, reapportionment — has secured many districts as either exclusively “R” or exclusively “D.”

The Republicans, who control the state’s House and Senate today, are a far cry from the moderate Republican tradition embodied by Mr. Scott, the former senators John Heinz and Richard S. Schweiker, or the former governor Dick Thornburgh. The current Republicans are, as a group, a rabid, or dedicated, group of anti-taxers who would bring tears of joy to the eyes of Grover Norquist and his Club for Growth.

This tilt to the right has been in the works for years. It culminated this year when Republicans in the State Senate ousted Dominic Pileggi, a suburban Philadelphia moderate, from his leadership position for being an accommodationist. (Read: Mr. Pileggi would sometimes forge compromises to keep government functioning.) That was a bad omen.

Mr. Pileggi was replaced by Senator Jake Corman, whose district includes Penn State. Mr. Corman is not known as a hard-liner, but other members of his caucus are, and he keeps having to look over his shoulder lest he anger them and they stage another putsch.

In the House, the conservative but mild-mannered House Speaker Sam Smith retired and was replaced this year by Mike Turzai, an ultraconservative who favors a take-no-prisoners approach. Ted Cruz without the charm.

Until recent weeks, the Republicans had dug in and vowed not to pass a budget with any tax increases. But 72 cents of every state tax dollar is returned to local governments and school districts, so the pressure is building from the folks at home for someone in Harrisburg to do something. The day is coming when schools and agencies will have to close down.

Mr. Wolf and Republican leaders had a deal at one point that did involve smaller tax increases. Then none. Another deal. Then none. A third deal. And then none. The most recent deal collapsed last week after the House Republicans scotched it and proceeded to pass their own version of the budget, which neither the Senate nor Mr. Wolf support.

There are some House and Senate Republicans ready to supply votes for some tax increases as part of a budget settlement, but there is no organizing force at the top to move things along. Settling for half a loaf, once a necessary condition of governance in this state, has become anathema in those caucuses.

These Republicans would rather see government blow up than compromise. They may get their wish.

Plaid is so yesterday.

Tom Ferrick Jr. is a reporter who has covered Pennsylvania government and politics since the 1970s.